FIXATION AT ECONOMIC RENT 39 



the agricultural land than in the former case ; in fact, it any 

 substantial proportion of the surplus is to be allotted to 

 the tenants, rents must be fixed by State interference over 

 practically the whole territory. The advantage of this 

 latter course would be that the tenants would be able 

 either to increase their standard of living, or save a little 

 capital. They would first repay their debts and then be 

 able to purchase better bullocks and some improved agri- 

 cultural implements, to sow with their own seed and live 

 on their own capital until harvest time. But there are 

 also two other ways in which the surplus might be utilized 

 by members of the tenant class. Some who have large 

 holdings may prefer a life of comparative ease at a low 

 standard of living ; and will sub-let some of their fields or, 

 if this be impossible under the law, would take in a partner 

 who would be required to do most of the work. In many 

 cases, however, the enjoyment of the surplus by the tenant 

 will be comparatively short-lived. Excepting when an epi- 

 demic or other disaster occurs to reduce the number of the 

 family, there will almost certainly be several children 

 who, as they grow up, will have to be supported on the 

 produce of the holding. In the absence of education 

 providing the desire for a higher standard of living, the 

 tendency will be for two or more sons to settle on the 

 holding and bring up their families on it ; so that the 

 surplus would soon be swallowed up in supporting a larger 

 number of persons. In the conditions prevailing in these 

 Provinces we might perhaps anticipate that 10 per cent 

 of the cultivators would be in a position to save money, 

 through having small families, and would be prudent 

 enough to do so ; and that the other three classes into which 

 I have divided the tenants might each perhaps be about 

 30 per cent of the whole. These figures are of course 

 nothing more than a guess founded upon a general observation 



